Chapter 7:
The first few weeks of term passed rather quickly for the first year students. They didn't feel too overloaded with work and had plenty of time to play. As the end of October drew to an end, Halloween began to draw closer. Although the first year students had never been to the Halloween Feast at Hogwarts, they had heard a lot about it. There were supposedly pumpkins big enough for three people to fit into, and live bats flying all around the castle. Lily, Remus and Emmie were sitting in the library chatting excitedly about the upcoming feast.
"Did you hear that they have spiders as big as your head crawling up and down the wall?" Remus asked the two girls.
"Ewwww!" squeaked Emmie in terror. "Are you sure about that? What if they ate you or something?"
"For one thing Emmie, spiders can't eat you. For another, Remus is probably just lying to scare us." Lily said matter of factly.
"I don't know if it's true, it's just what somebody told me." Remus said defensively.
"Who told it to you?" Lily quizzed him.
"Sirius." Remus said simply.
"Oh." Lily said. Then turning to Emmie she said, "Then it's definitely not true."
"So." Emmie asked conversationally, "Are you guys going to the Halloween feast with anyone yet?" Just last week, James and Sirius had started the fad among all the first years of inviting dates to the Halloween feast by asking Rachel Anstruther and Kaitlyn Holmes if they would accompany them.
"Nope." Lily said shaking her head. "No one's asked me, but quite frankly I find the whole thing silly. It's just a feast and you'll see everyone in the school there anyways. But if somebody did ask me, which I don't think they would, I'd consider it. What about you Remus?"
"No." He said flatly, "I haven't been able to work up the nerve to ask anyone yet. James and Sirius have both got their dates though. They're taking Rachel Anstruther and Kaitlyn Holmes. They want me to take Marlene McKinnon because those three girls are best friends, but I don't think that I could stand Marlene's high-pitched voice for an entire night. What about you Emmie? Are you going with anybody?"
"Yes." Emmie giggled, blushing crimson.
"Well who is it then?" Lily demanded.
"Walter Anthony." She finally admitted.
"Hmm." Lily considered. "I haven't talked to him much, but he's always seemed nice."
"Yes." Remus agreed. "Lily?"
"Yeah?" Lily answered.
"Hey Remus!" came the voice of James Potter. "Get over here a minute will you? We need your help with something."
"I'll be right back." Remus said, getting up and walking over to where Sirius and James were sitting. Remus felt somewhat relieved and somewhat annoyed. He was just about to ask Lily to the Halloween feast when James called him over here. He knew that he wanted to ask Lily at some point, but he didn't really mind putting it off to later. He didn't know why he was so nervous, he could talk to her about everything else, but something about actually asking her out gave him the Goosebumps.
"Wow this has got to be the first time that you two have ever set foot in the library. Did you find your way here okay?" Remus asked.
"Made a couple of wrong turns, ended up somewhere near the Hufflepuff common room. But the head boy, Amos Diggory, helped us sort out where we wanted to go in the end." Sirius said.
"Well I suppose there's some reason you set foot in here for the first time." Remus said. This was his way of saying 'cut to the chase.'
"Yes, as a matter of fact there is." James said. "You know how the walled off the space directly above the secret room?"
"Yes." Remus said, starting to get worried.
"Well, we figure that there's got to be a different way to get in there. We're going to look again tomorrow night." James concluded.
"Okay then. Is that all?" Remus asked, now desperately wanting to get back and ask Lily, before it was too late.
"You're not lecturing us for being out of bounds after hours?" Sirius asked in awe.
"You're not refusing to come with us?" asked James.
"No, I'm not. I, like you, want to know more about the stone thing, and the Daily Profit sure as hell isn't telling us anything about that. Plus, without my help you two would probably get a whole load of shit. And I'm not talking a couple of detentions, depending on how secret a mission Dumbledore and McGonagall are involved in, you could be expelled." Remus said, simply.
With that, Remus headed back to their table where two boys were now chatting with Lily and Emmie. One of the boys Remus recognized as Walter Anthony, Emmie's date, but the other, he hadn't seen before. Before he got to the table, however, the two boys said goodbye to Lily and Emmie, and left.
"Who were they?" Remus asked Lily as he sat back down.
"Oh Walter Anthony, Emmie's date," she said, gesturing to Emmie, who was now immersed in reading her Defense Against the Dark Arts book. "and his friend, Kyle Gallagher. Kyle just asked me to go to the feast with him, and I obliged."
"I'm glad to hear it!" Remus lied, forcing his face into a smile.
"What did Potter and Black want?" Lily asked curiously.
"Oh, just some stuff…" Remus said.
"Oh, okay." Lily said, checking her watch. "It's almost 7:30. We should probably think about heading up to the common room now."
"Yeah, okay." Remus agreed.
Lily and Remus said goodbye to Emmie and started going up to Gryffindor Tower. On his way up, he saw Marlene coming out of the lou, and decided to ask her to the feast. According to James, she didn't yet have a date to the feast, and Rachel said that she was asking about him. That being said, Remus felt pretty comfortable asking her. He told Lily that he had to use the lou and not to wait for him, then went back to find Marlene.
"Hey." He said smoothly tapping her on the shoulder.
"Oh! Hey!" She said looking back at him. "You're not going out with Evans are you?"
"Lily? Oh no! She and I were just in the library and happened to be leaving at the same time." Remus lied, knowing that Marlene didn't like Lily much.
"Oh, okay." She said.
"Actually," Remus said, "I came here to ask you a question. I was wondering if you would like to go to the Halloween feast with me."
"Yes, of course." She said. "But I gotta go now! I promised Kaitlyn I'd meet her in the girl's dorm, to help her with her Transfiguration essay. How about we in the common room around five tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sure! I'll see you then." Remus said, smiling. 'Since when do you meet your date at five o'clock for a seven o'clock feast?' he wondered. 'Did she expect him to do something with her before the feast?' He then went up to ask Sirius and James.
Lily sat on her bed, preparing to go to sleep when Marlene came in with a huge smile on her face. "Oh my God! Rachel! Kaitlyn! You'll never guess what just happened?" She screamed.
"What?" both girls asked excitedly and in unison.
"Remus Lupin asked me to go to the feast with him!" She exclaimed happily. All three girls stood there screaming and jumping up and down for a while.
When they finally settled down Rachel said "Oh my God! This is like so cool! Are three dates are best friends like us!"
"Do they expect us to wear our school robes to this feast?" Kaitlyn asked. "Or are we allowed to dress up?"
"I don't know what we're allowed to do, but I'm going as a cat. I have this really cute costume! Hold on," Rachel said, rummaging through her trunk, "I'll show you guys." She found it and held it up for the room to see. Lily sat up and looked at it. She couldn't help noticing that it looked more like black lingerie with black tights and cat ears, than anything else.
"Sexy." Kaitlyn said.
"If James didn't know before, he'd definitely know you were hot after seeing you in that thing." Marlene said.
Seeing Lily staring at her costume she said. "Lily, how do you like my costume? Do you think that your date would like to see you in this? Wait, you do have a date, don't you?"
"Yes. I'm going with Kyle Gallagher, and I doubt I'd want him to see me in nothing short of underwear on our very first date. For you, I suppose it's nice though." Lily said coolly.
Rachel chose to ignore Lily's comment. She turned to Kaitlyn ad Marlene and asked "So do you girls have your costumes yet?"
"I wasn't sure if we could wear them, but I totally had one just in case." Kaitlyn said. She opened her trunk and brought out a costume similar to Rachel's, except it had a pink bodice, with white fluff around the top, white tights, and bunny ears instead of cat ones.
"Oh my God that is so cute!" Marlene exclaimed.
"The pink and white totally goes well with your complexion and hair. Sirius is going to fall head over heals when he sees you in that thing!" Rachel said.
"Thanks!" Kaitlyn said. "What about you Marlene, do you have a costume yet?"
"Yeah, but it's not as cute as your guys'." Marlene said.
"I'm sure it is!" Kaitlyn said, "Just show it to us!"
"Fine, but don't laugh." Marlene went and fetched her costume from her trunk. When she got back, all three girls just stared at it. Marlene looked from Rachel to Kaitlyn and even around to Lily. "What? You guys hate it don't you! I knew it was ugly when my mom picked it out."
"You let your mom pick out your costume?" Rachel asked in disbelief.
"Yeah well, I just forgot about and had to have her send me up one." Marlene shrugged.
"Have you ever heard of a catalog?" Rachel asked with her eyebrows raised. "Wait! That's it! A costume catalog! I even have one with me. If we hurry we can get it by tomorrow!" Rachel ran to her bag and grabbed a catalog out of it. The three girls looked through the catalog until they found a mouse costume that they deemed acceptable. After placing the order they turned to Lily.
"Do you have a costume for the dance Evans?" Marlene asked.
"Yes." Lily said simply.
"Let's see it then." Rachel said.
Lily pulled out her white halter dress and blonde wig from the bottom of her trunk.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Marilyn Monroe." Lily replied stately. "She was an American actress from the forties and fifties."
"Oh…" Kaitlyn said. Lily smiled inwardly and amended her mother for her choice of costume. The dress was pretty enough so that Kaitlyn, Marlene and Rachel didn't criticize it, but not showy enough for them to call her a slut or a whore. But then again, they had nothing to explain about, if the three of them went out in their costumes at their ages, people would be appalled.
When Remus entered the boys dormitory, James asked him, "So. Have you got a date to the Halloween feast yet?"
"Yup!" Remus said smiling.
"So, Evans said yes then?" Sirius said, conversationally. Both he and James knew that Remus fancied Lily, but wouldn't admit it. Although they disliked her, they were glad that he'd finally asked her out, for his sake.
"No…" Remus began.
"WHAT?" James interrupted. "She said no?"
"No." Remus said simply. "She's going with Emmie's date's friend, Kyle Gallagher."
"Why didn't you ask her?" James asked.
"Because I didn't want to, okay? Her and I are just friends." Remus said.
"Who are you going with, then?" Sirius asked.
"Marlene McKinnon." Remus said.
"Oh good! That's a relief. Sirius, Rachel and I were worried that we'd have to set her up with Peter Pettigrew, that fat kid in our dorm; he was the only Gryffindor boy in our year, besides you, without a date. And we thought that you weren't interested." James said.
"No, I was interested. I just couldn't get the nerve to ask her before now." Remus said. "I wonder why nobody else asked her before me. She's pretty enough."
"People did, she wanted you to ask her though, so she said 'no'." James replied.
"What time are you guys meeting Rachel and Kaitlyn?"
"Five o'clock, why?" Sirius said.
"That's what time Marlene told me to meet her. What are you guys going to do for the two hours before the feast?" Remus asked.
"Oh! She probably thought he was in on the…" James said, turning to Sirius.
"Oh!" Sirius said surprised. "Well I suppose he can come…"
"Wanna ask him?" James asked.
"Ask me what?" Remus asked, tapping his foot impatiently.
"You see, Arthur Weasley's putting on a haunted house in the forbidden forest. It was supposed to be for fifth, sixth, and seventh years only, but we found out about it and posed the threat that we might tell McGonagall or someone. As if." James snorted. "Anyways, he invited us to come and see it and I don't think it would be too much bother if you and Marlene came as well?"
"If Arthur's only opening it to fifth, sixth, and seventh years, don't you think it will be really scary and that the girls would get scared?" Remus asked.
"Exactly." Sirius said with a sly glint in his eyes.
"So you asked them out just to hear them scream?" Remus said, appalled. "That was mean!"
"Well that was the original reason for it." James said. "But we figure we'll hang out with them for the rest of the night just for the hell of it."
"Damn right you will" Remus said.
"So are you going to come or not? We've gotta tell Arthur if you are." Sirius asked.
"What else am I going to do for two hours?" Remus asked.
A/N: Sorry that chapter wasn't as long as the last one—every chapter can't eight pages! J Can you see Lily's life getting better? Two guys wanted to go to the feast with her and neither Marlene, Rachel nor Kaitlyn made a snide remark at her all night. In the next chapter will be the haunted house and the Halloween feast. Please read and review!